NEW YORK - March 21, 2008: During the 2008 New York International Auto
Show, Nissan unveiled two all-new models: the revised 2009 Maxima and the
Infiniti FX. Nissan indicates the four-door 2009 Maxima combines features
from both a sedan and a sports car. Modeled after the 2009 GT-R supercar,
designers indicate they focused on changing three primary traits: exterior
design, creating a “super” cockpit and enhancing
“class-leading performance.” The Infiniti FX, designers say, is
a blend between luxury vehicles and SUVs. The FX offers a variety of safety
technologies including Intelligent Brake Assist (IBA), Distance Control
Assist (DCA) and Adaptive Shift Control (ASC). Both vehicles are scheduled
to rollout in the summer of 2008.

– Aggressive Styling, Refined Platform, More Powerful V6,
Cockpit-like Interior and Enhanced Quality Highlight Changes to Seventh
Generation of Nissan’s Flagship Sedan – The 2009 Nissan Maxima,
which makes its world debut at the 2008 New York International Auto Show,
marks a return to the longtime Nissan flagship sedan’s roots as a
commanding 4-door sports car – a vehicle that is unique in both
appearance and driving feel, with renewed relevance for today’s
active and ambitious sedan buyers. In other words, the Maxima is back.

The all-new 2009 Maxima will be offered as two well-equipped models,
Maxima 3.5 S and Maxima 3.5 SV, and is scheduled to arrive at Nissan
dealers nationwide in early summer 2008.

“Maxima has always enjoyed a certain ‘duality’ –
a unique fusion of sedan practicality with the soul of a sports car,”
said Al Castignetti, vice president and general manager, Nissan Division,
Nissan North America, Inc. “In recent years, however, competitive
vehicles have caught up with Maxima in ‘sporty’ looks and
performance. For 2009, Nissan is reclaiming its rich 4-Door Sports Car
heritage with an infusion of emotional design, driving excitement and
advanced technology – creating a silky, stimulating sports sedan like
no other on the road today.”

2009 Maxima: Reborn at the “Ring” “Do-overs” are
sometimes allowed in sports but rarely in the automotive industry. Yet
midway through the development of the new-generation Maxima a mulligan was
indeed granted. Rather than continue with an evolution of the previous
highly successful Maxima design, the creators of the 2009 Maxima stopped
and rethought the entire direction.

Inspired by the concurrent top secret development of the 2009 Nissan
GT-R supercar, they threw away positioning words like
“conservative” and “balanced” and concentrated
instead on new concepts like “addictive performance,”
“striking,” “commanding” and
“powerful.”

High targets were established, including the goal of creating “the
best performing front engine, front-wheel drive car in the world,”
along with class-leading acceleration, braking, handling, workmanship and
cockpit design.

“We aren’t walking away from the strengths of the last
generation Maxima, which was rated the top-ranked vehicle in
AutoPacific’s 2007 Vehicle Satisfaction Award for Luxury Mid-Size
Cars and a winner of Strategic Vision’s 2007 Total Quality Award? for
Best Medium Car Ownership Experience,” said Castignetti.
“However, complacency breeds complacent vehicles. The new Maxima
demanded taking risks in order to ultimately come up with a much more
exciting and rewarding vehicle.”

Three key areas were singled out for change: exterior design, which
needed to be more aggressive, with more personality and attitude; a
“super” cockpit, creating an interior that combines a driver
orientation with high quality, roominess and user-friendly technology; and
class-leading performance, enhancing what previous generation owners called
“Maxima-ness.”

To further push the performance envelope, the development team
challenged themselves to concentrate their efforts on “emotional
engineering” – to experience Maxima with the five senses in a
purer, more visceral manner, rather than through CAD drawings and computer
simulations.

As each designer and engineer set and exceeded higher and higher
targets, they realized that confirmation of the results would require
validation on the road. But not just any road. Members of the development
team traveled to Germany’s famed Nürburgring Nordschleife circuit
– not coincidentally the site of much of the GT-R’s performance
development work – to test Maxima prototypes. Special attention was
placed on body rigidity, suspension and steering, along with honing
Maxima’s competitiveness against some well-established European
sports sedans.

“A number of product changes came directly from the Nürburgring
trials, including enhancements to the braking and transmission
systems,” said Castignetti. “But more importantly, it gave
notice to the entire Nissan organization that the new Maxima is back
solidly in the performance arena where it rightfully belongs.”

Aggressive Design Adds a “Wow” Factor to the Sedan Category
While seeking to create a simple-yet-strong presence, the designers of the
new Maxima’s exterior also wanted to re-assert Maxima’s
breakthrough personality – establishing a “wow” level of
style that would clearly distinguish it from segment competitors.

The exterior design theme for the new Maxima is “Liquid
Motion” – focusing on the flow of its powerful and beautiful
surfaces, like the undulation of a wave. The look starts with
Maxima’s aggressive stance and powerful fender volume, which is not
unlike many exotic sports cars on the market today. This deeply sculpted
body/fender treatment is seldom used for mass market vehicles because of
the engineering and manufacturing complexity required to physically
accomplish it. Maxima’s new stance is created by a slight reduction
in wheelbase and overall length, along with a wider front and rear
track.

Maxima’s new look imparts a strong, premium presence. The large,
wraparound L-shaped headlights add a unique dimension to the overall
design, while the light surrounds suggest a powerful “turbine”
appearance of energy and strength. The upturned headlight shape combines
with a wide grille, large bumper opening and bulging
“catamaran-style” hood to give Maxima a formidable expression,
setting the tone for the rest of the vehicle.

The powerful Maxima form continues along its profile, with careful
layering of the bumper, hood and fender parting lines. The polished,
elegant motion spreads from the deep-waisted rear fenders through
distinctive Maxima-style C-pillars and high trunk lid.

Dimensionally, versus the previous generation, the new Maxima measures
the same width at the doors but wider at each fender, which not only helps
project a sporty appearance but also allows a reduction in the visual gap
between the fenders and wheels and tires. Maxima’s dynamic
performance stance is accented by 18-inch and available 19-inch
aluminum-alloy wheels with low-profile performance tires.

Another new styling feature is the available Dual Panel Moonroof, which
is traditionally offered only in luxury segments. The Dual Panel Moonroof
includes a front section that moves like a normal moonroof (positioned
farther forward than typical), with a very wide opening to provide an
open-air motoring feeling. There is also a fixed translucent rear section
that provides light to rear seat passengers. The overall design gives the
appearance that the entire roof is composed of black glass. The Dual Panel
Moonroof includes dual power sunshades for both the front and rear glass
sections, adding a level of convenience.

At the rear, Maxima features a new 12-LED L-shaped taillight design,
with a pair of side marker bulbs for added visibility during night
driving.

“Maxima’s breathtaking new exterior gives it a commanding,
almost coupe-like appearance, with plenty of driveway appeal,” said
Castignetti. “It’s one sedan that will definitely be noticed by
the next door neighbors, along with a lot of other people.”

Leading-Edge Sports Sedan Performance Platform For five previous
generations, Maxima has been built on a front-wheel drive (FWD) platform.
Yet with the new Maxima’s development team everything was open for
discussion, including the benefits of front-wheel drive versus rear-wheel
drive (RWD). Although there are well-known advantages of RWD in terms of
sporty handling, it was ultimately decided that by switching Maxima from
its previous platform to Nissan’s new “D platform,” which
was first introduced on the current Nissan Altima Sedan, Hybrid and Coupe,
the target Maxima performance could be delivered – without giving up
the added FWD benefits of lower costs, lower weight and enhanced roominess
versus a RWD platform.

“As demonstrated time and again with the new Altima, the new
Nissan D platform is an amazing piece of engineering – providing
responsive handling while virtually eliminating the torque steer often
associated with high horsepower FWD applications,” said Castignetti.
“For the new Maxima, we’ve continued to refine the D platform,
creating what we believe is one of the best-performing front-wheel drive
car in the world, far above other FWD vehicles in its class. It’s a
level of performance that we think will be highly addictive.”

In creating driving performance worthy of Nissan’s flagship, the
Maxima’s body and chassis engineering teams worked together to create
a secure feeling, virtually no torque steer during acceleration and a level
of nimbleness that ultimately makes a car fun to drive.

A range of enhancements helped achieve these targets, including
increasing body rigidity and adjusting the wheelbase and track dimensions.
Body rigidity was increased by 15 percent and front strut mounting rigidity
was increased by 100 percent, with all-new structures added to the engine
compartment and additional reinforcement applied to the instrument panel
structure. Maximas equipped with the Sport or Premium Packages feature a
panel behind the rear seat that improves torsional rigidity by 17 percent
versus models with a fold-down rear seat (a rear trunk pass-through is
utilized with this panel).

The 2009 Maxima has a wheelbase of 109.3 inches, a decrease of 1.9
inches versus the 2008 Maxima, and width has been increased by 1.5 inches
to 73.2 inches. The front and rear track measurement of 62.4 inches
represents increases of 1.4 inches front and 1.2 inches rear over the
previous model.